I don't want to open a can of worms on this list, but while doing some research on a family I happen to run into some information which reminded me about the suggestion to omit maiden names when giving ancestral lines for fear of identity theft. I think there is one avenue which all of us have forgotten. This avenue is one which I advocated to my mother a few years when when she brought up the avenue subject - gravestones. Mother wanted to make sure that her burial location had a gravestone which she wanted in design and with the information she desired. She also had bought a lot for our family as she knew that the lots my grandmother had bought would be used by others in the family. The only thing I requested was that I wanted her maiden name on it for genealogical purposes. Well she evidently remembered this and I got the shock of my life when I saw the gravestone for the first time at my aunt's funeral in 2001. I went to my grandparents' lot to see where my aunt was going to be buried and was talking with the funeral director (my school classmate) and my husband when I started looking around the church cemetery. All of a sudden I saw it - my parents gravestone. I didn't even have to look at the front side to see the surname. On the backside of the stone was my given name as well as those of my twin sisters. It made me feel a little older than I am at the moment. I didn't expect my mother to include our names. I'm sure that my sisters (both are single and fast approaching the 50-year mark) will be buried there. As for my husband and I we too will be buried in the same cemetery, but most likely on a different lot. If anyone knows my married name and any other data pertinent to identity theft, they can get my mother's maiden name from the gravestone if needed. Anyone who goes into cemeteries will probably see this on a lot of gravestones if the larger stones are allowed to be used. I realize in some of the newer cemeteries or in some cases newer additions, the ground-level bronze markers are the only type of gravemarker allowed and space is limited for information. I do realize that anyone can access the various genealogical mail lists via a search engine. However, here are so many avenues online and offline to obtain information about anyone that I don't think using maiden names on this list or any other genealogical list is going to matter. Some of the online avenues require a paid membership but there are others which are free if you know how to access them. And before I close this message, there is a gravestone in a Kentucky cemetery which anyone would be grateful for. The couple had a genealogical story on the back of their gravestone. The names of the husband's surname ancestral line were engraved - parents, grandparents, gr-grandparents, gr-gr-grandparents, gr-gr-gr-grandparents, gr-gr-gr-gr-grandparents, gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-grandparents along with the wife's maiden name and their marriage dates. Anyone researching that surname will have found a gold mine, especially the couple's descendants of any generation. Debbi Geer __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com